Thyroidectomy: 1 year cancer free!

I have been going back and forth about if I want to post about my thyroid cancer or not. Then I remembered how scared I was when I was first diagnosed and how I searched online for someone else that had gone through the same thing. However, not many people really post all of the glory details, so I figured I would! If medical stuff bores you, I'd skip this post. For those of you that are not sure what a thyroid is, it is the butterfly shaped gland that regulates all of your hormones in your body.

Last year my apartment had mold, specifically my bedroom. I had enlarged glands by my ears so I went to an ENT to get checked out. He did a CT scan that revealed it was just scar tissue, BUT the scan also revealed I had a nodule on my thyroid (what is a nodule?! is what I first thought). I was told it was normal but that I had to get an ultrasound done every 6 months to watch it. Well, it grew and I had a biopsy done. Basically, they jab a needle several times into your neck to grab parts of this "nodule" to test. Yes, it was very painful actually. I got a call from my doctor's nurse at a week later in January while I was at work and instead of giving me the results she just said, "the doctor wants to see you in his office this week to discuss the results," working in healthcare myself, I knew it wasn't good. So I hid in the supply closet and cried like any normal human being would do...and called my mom. I called the doctor's office and told them I couldn't go in because I live out of state, I had just started my second semester of senior year and was working. The doctor called me that night to tell me it was cancer and we needed to do surgery sooner rather than later.

Fast forward a month, a million pre-op appointments and I was going in for surgery. I took about a month off school, thankfully my professors were more than understanding (got to love Xavier professors!). I elected to have my whole thyroid removed instead of just half because the side without the cancer had a nodule on it too that may develop into cancer so why go through it again. I didn't know what to expect with surgery. I was more worried about anesthesia than anything else. I went in to pre-op (sorry, no makeup was allowed, yikes!) and my family was allowed to sit with me. I wasn't too scared then. Once I was wheeled into the operating room I don't remember much but thinking to myself that it didn't look like Grey's Anatomy. My Anesthesiologist (who was very cute!) made a joke that he was going to give me a few good cocktails...and that's all I remember!

Now post-op...ick! I had a rough recovery. I got sick from the anesthesia, which I did with my wisdom teeth as well. They even gave me anti nausea meds but they didn't work. I was in recovery for a while, puking my guts out. The only thing that felt nice was the cold wash cloth on my head. I remember just staring at the person across from me who was waking up and kept trying to get out of bed. It all is very fuzzy and felt like a dream. The phlebotomist kept coming to draw my blood but had to wait and watch me puke, how embarrassing. I had to have 3 nurses with me and let me just tell you, puking while you just had surgery on your neck, hurts! The narcotics for pain made me even sicker so I said I only wanted extra strength tylenol.

After I finally made it back to my room, my family tells me that the first thing I said when I saw them was, "do my makeup and make me look pretty" HAH. I spent the night in the hospital and my throat was SO dry the entire night, I ate about 4 lemon Italian ice, some soup, ice chips and apple juice. Every time I had to pee I'd have to wait for a nurse to walk with me, it was weird. My legs were actually very weak, strange feeling. They had pressure booties on my lower legs while I was in bed to prevent blood clots. I was in pain, probably because I wasn't taking heavy pain medication. My voice was horse, but only for a few days. I winced in pain for about a day or two every time I had to swallow.

The few weeks after surgery were not bad at all. My neck was very stiff, I couldn't really turn my head and I had bad bruising on the back of my neck. It hurt to sleep too, so I slept on the couch for a good 2 weeks but turning sides was painful. It didn't take too long though until I was able to eat normal soft food again. I was too chicken to removed the large gauze covering the steri strips for a while so I left it until I had to take it off. Seeing stuff like that on my body grosses me out. Thank you to everyone that sent me flowers!!!

I left the steri strips on for a while, I went back to work and the Director of Nursing told me I needed to take them off and clean it off...basically she said stop being a baby. So I did! I was SO impressed by how great of a job the surgeon did! My scar is so tiny! I put vitamin E oil on it every night. It doesn't bother me at all, I only wore scarves for a few days after but I don't even care anymore.

The whole point of sharing my story now is because I just had my 1 year whole body scan and it showed CANCER FREE!! I was so very very very happy! Here is a more recent picture of my scar. It has faded a bit but still kind of red..

Wow, that was long and rambley! I am going to do another post regarding the effects of having to thyroid. It is not just peaches and cream after getting the cancer removed. There are consequences when you remove a part of your body that regulates all of your hormones!

Moral of the story: thank God for mold!

One Step Closer!

I officially am one step closer to becoming a licensed nursing home administrator. Leave it up to me to pick the hardest state to get your license in. However, I now see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I just got back from a 3 week conference that was held up in Columbus, Ohio (it is required that you attend this conference before you sit for your licensing exam). Columbus is a bit too far to drive back and forth every day, so I stayed up there during the week and came back to Cincinnati on the weekends. Honestly, I had been dreading this conference and didn't want to go. However, I ended up really enjoying it & had a lot of fun...on top of learning so much that I wanted to cry.

I stayed in an Airbnb like Shelby & I did when we went to Toronto. My loft was so cute & it was located in Short North, a very popular place in Columbus. Overall, I was not a fan of Columbus. It thought it was dirty, the streets were so narrow and parking is terrible. It made me realize how much I truly love Cincinnati and how much it has started to feel like "home". I greatly looked forward to coming home on the weekends. Despite the freezing temperatures, I did try to get out and explore some of what Columbus had to offer. And by the way, Ohio State University did not impress me.

The conference is basically a crash course packed full of everything you need to know in order to be a nursing home administrator. Therefore, the 46 other people in my class are all future administrators like me. It was so neat seeing and talking with others who have the same passion for long-term care as me. On the flip side pretty much all of our speakers told us how this is the most difficult time to get into the industry because of all the new regulations & reimbursement cutbacks, as well as how we will all get sued at least once in our career. Sounds like a great career path right?! IT IS!

I think there is not a more exciting time to join the industry, especially with all of the baby boomers. This is when we are needed most! Yes there will be challenges and lots and lots and lots of laws that we have to follow, but at the end of the day I do this because I want to provide others with a quality life during their most vulnerable time. Our elders deserve it.

As you can see, after 8-9 hours of class, it was necessary to go out and have some fun. It was amazing the connection that formed between our group in such a short period of time. Not only did I made several new friends, but professional contacts--we will all be relying on each other in our future career. Yes, that is future nursing home administrators riding a mechanical bull...scary right?!

After the end of our 3 weeks, they even had a little graduation ceremony for us! Now I truly am one step closer to getting my license!....after I finish studying for the next month and a half.

Year of Goals

2016 is a fresh start to accomplish a years worth of goals. Some of the goals may be fun, others may be a necessity. I am a huge fan of to-do lists, I always have at least one list of something--whether it's for work or my personal life. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list (to-do list) of goals  that I want to accomplish this year. I've had this post as a draft for a while and now that it is already a month into the year, I have already accomplished a few goals.

1. Book Trip to Europe-I've been debating booking a flight for months, constantly checking prices to see when they would drop & one day they did! I found a trip with a layover in the US and roundtrip was half of most of the other flights. When else do you have time as a young adult to travel to Europe with no responsibilities attached??? AND not have to pay for housing, cha ching!--ACCOMPLISHED!
2. Get Life Insurance-odd for someone my age isn't it? Medical reasoning behind it, but on the plus side, if you get life insurance while you're young, you are locked into a super low rate! Of course nothing can be that easy, so when my policy arrived in the mail it stated I was 10 years older than what I was, so the price was a lot higher, umm NOT okay, situation handled and is all fixed now--ACCOMPLISHED!
3. Pass Nursing Home Administrator Licensure Exam-the 2 most intimidating exams of my life that determines my career...please let this be as easy as college.
4. Get a Job as LNHA-providing that I pass ^^ I'd also like to add decent salary to this goal $$
5. Join a Young Professional Society-you're only a young professional once right?! might as well make the most of it. For those of you wondering most groups list young professionals as ages 22-45...not what I thought either. I have been debating between the Cincinnati Ronald McDonald Children's Home "Red Shoe Crew" or the Young Professional American Cancer Society Cincinnati Chapter. Those are two fun and important organizations that I would like to volunteer my time to give back to. I also want to join the American College of Healthcare Executives, but that is for career reasons. 
6. Become an Ohio Resident-this is something that I am dreading but it needs to be done. Not only do I have to get an OH drivers license, retake the written exam, then I need to transfer my title to OH, get car insurance in OH, get 2 car testings done and finally get OH plates. Who knew so much stuff was required to become an Ohio resident?
7. Renew Lease/Move-well when my property management approached me about renewing my lease I had not really thought about it, then I thought why not? I love living here, sure my place is tiny but it has become my "home". I am saving SO much money living here, especially for the sweet location I am in, so I renewed without thinking twice! Figured all the money I save in the next year would be the smarter decision--ACCOMPLISHED!
8. Budget Money-this is always going to be a work in progress but I think I have been doing very well this year. I have this intense Excel spreadsheet that I have been using to track all of my expenses and income. I also started saving all my receipts so I can enter them into my spreadsheet to see where my money is going to. Not only am I just tracking but I set limits for groceries, gas, etc. I've admittedly been driving to the ghetto to go grocery shopping because their Kroger is cheaper. Gotta do what you gotta do right?! I'd rather spend my money on traveling.
9. Become CEAL Certified-so you're probably wondering what a CEAL is...no, not a SEAL, it is a Certified Executive of Assisted Living. It is additional training and exam to get this additional certification. I think it would make me more marketable and a great career move. The building I work at now has assisted living and assisted living is becoming more and more prominent in the long-term care industry. Plus, I am a total nerd and will never want to stop learning.
10. Workout-LOL so typical right?! But I really do want to workout to be healthy. I know I am tiny and do not need to loose weight but the amount of food I can consume can be a bit concerning so for the sake of my arteries some working out would not hurt and I'd like to work on my arms...we'll see how that goes.